From Fall

I'm dying to start decorating for Christmas, but it's happening after Thanksgiving for the most part. (I've snuck a few things out here and there.) It might sound goofy, but it finally occurred to me this year that my excitement to decorate inside for the holidays coincides exactly with when the last of the fall colors disappear.  As son as it's just about barren outside, I want to decorate inside and make it cozy and add reds and greens for more color.

Also, Instagram has sort of become a mini blog for me and I'm trying to decide if I like that or not.  I want to write more now that I have the mental space, just can't decide where that needs to be.  I've been finally picking up my real camera again and that feels really good.  The only problem is that the big kids are so set against being in photos. So if it seems like I'm favoring the little one in photos, you are correct. He can't protest yet and we spend 24/7 together:)

In the Spring

We had to say goodbye to our chickens this spring.  From what we understand, someone complained which lead our borough to send us  letter that we were in violation of ordinances and told us we had 10 days to get rid of them.  I spent the days leading up to day 10 gathering info and ordinances, but at the end of the day we hadn't read as well as we thought in the first place and it totally stinks.  The hardest part for me, beyond the strangeness of standing in the kitchen window and not looking out to see my girls and missing their eggs and sweetness, is that I really want to take the time to work on trying to do what I can to try to change the ordinances to at least allow us a few chickens.  But we're prepping our house to get it on the market in the next few weeks, so between house hunting and house prep and end of the school year activities and getting ready for baby #3 while I'm still sick 24/7, I just don't have the energy right now. 

Everything else is normal.  Good weather, windows open, kids happy outside (thank goodness!), yard work, grilling, lots of end-of-year school events, getting excited for the pool to open, lots of holidays and birthdays, getting excited about the baby.  That's all I have right now! 

From the Weekend

Grilled Pizza The trick is to oil both sides like crazy and grill one side of the crust, flip it over, then add toppings.  We did one with tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella and basil and another (my favorite) with olives, artichokes, red onion, oregano, mozzarella and feta. 

Limeade.

Flowers. Weeding. Watering.  Repeat.
Her own bouquet.

Mini Golf with Grandparents.

Fireworks and a 4th of July party with friends on the most beautiful summer night.

Backyard wild shenanigans.

Escaped chickens (the little ones are like Houdini!) 

More grilling.

Sprinklers and Baby Pools.

Bike washing in pajamas.

Water Balloons that take forever to blow up and 2 seconds to use.

Cartwheels.
Kids who look like they grew at least 5 inches overnight and dresses and shorts that seem to shrinking in length by the day.

It's crazy to think that the ice and fallen tree and longest winter ever were only 4.5 months ago and this is the same yard.